Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Why not Drill?
Advancements in drilling technology as well as reservoir modeling and data acquisition in the Petroleum industry has been progressing for several decades. With technology provided today, these advancements continue to grow. With capabilities of rotary steerable systems and downhole measuring equipment, accuracy of drillers to access hard to reach reservoirs has increased also. Research for enhanced recovery which can consist of surfactant and chemical injection to increase oil recovery is a continuing process. With a high dependency on foreign oil due to high consumption, why shouldn't funding be directed towards this research as well as unconventional research to begin to stray away from importing oil? Renewable energy attempts have not posed signs of providing sufficient energy as oil or natural gas are capable of. As technology continues to boom in the drilling industry, the wells to be drilled become more economical and leave room for greater production of reserves which could not be produced prior to tool advancements. Could funding unconventional reservoir research, and in turn lowering dependency on foreign fuels introduce benefits that the funding of renewable energy research has been striving to achieve in the increasing demand for energy?
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I like the question at the end, but I believe it is a straight forward answer (yes).
ReplyDeleteDo you have any diagrams of the rotary steerable systmes and downhole measuring equipment to help better explain these technologies and their uses?
It's not clear to me that doing more of this research would decrease our dependence on imports. Forecasts indicate we only need more oil in the coming decades, so we'll need whatever you find plus what we import now. So this seems to me a false dichotomy.
ReplyDeleteThe question of where to drill and at what cost is more interesting to me, in terms of debate, than this general question.
My thoughts-because it isn't clean. It isn't nano. It isn't the cool new thing. It is a cause for climate change-or so we've been told. Personally, the more you drill, the more steel you buy, the more money I see-so I'm all for it. The more difficult the well, the more money I make and the more advanced my industry has to become to meet the needs. This results in more funding on both ends.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Uncle Sam needs his cut. Both industries pollute and make a lot of money. It would in turn more than likely increase our dependence on oil in the short run, but make more money while we mess around with the newer, cleaner energies.
That's a good point cold steel, but wells now are being drilling horizontally which often are not cased with steel casing. Drilling rigs are advancing and can drill wells faster than ever, so the need for a large amount of more rigs would be less likely and same with drill pipe. As for where to drill, the Niobrara formation is a huge play right now. We have drilled through the formation already in the past and ignored those reserves due to lack of horizontal and stimulation technology. With these advances, reserves which we have ignored while drilling older wells are becoming more economical to produce. A permit for drilling is really restricted by several regulations which must be cleared before drilling in an area. Clearing this extensive and in depth permit gives permission to drill virtually anywhere if a permit can be accessed.
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